The ORTF implemented this project throughout 1972 in the form of a national and interregional channel in color, without advertising or continuity announcers (although out-of-vision announcers were later introduced), offering shorter evenings at different times compared to the other two channels, with a majority of cultural programs, and relying largely on the technical and editorial relays of its regional stations.

Then, the first program, Jeunes années, a program for young people, was launched with the cartoon Roulotte, followed at 8:35 p.m. by the inaugural evening of the channel consisting of a variety show written by Maurice Horgues, Jean Amadou and Robert Rocca, directed by Dirk Sanders and produced by the Lille8 production center and whose national sponsor is the singer Anne-Marie David, chosen by the CEO of the Office.

Throughout its run, broadcasts were restricted to three hours each evening and only reached a potential audience of 26% of the population – its transmissions primarily covered Paris, the Ile-de-France and Northern regions.

The choice of a manager from the seraglio responds to the already well-defined face of the future third channel in the law of 7 August, article 10 of which specifies that "one of the national companies reserves a privileged place for the programming of films on television".

This new national television program company is also responsible for managing and developing the regional radio and television centers created by the Office (22 regional stations and 29 radio centers governed by 11 metropolitan directorates and a DOM-TOM directorate managing 9 stations in French overseas territories).

On Monday 6 January 1975, at 6:55 pm, France Régions 3 begins its operations with a program schedule similar in all respects to that of the former third channel.

FR3 agrees to make available the color broadcasting network to TF1 reserved for it for regular transmissions in the afternoon until the start of its own programs at 6 pm.

FR3 must separate from its overseas broadcasting station of the French Territory of the Afars and Issas on 27 June 1977, following the declaration of independence of the Republic of Djibouti, although its still appeared highlighted in the channel's start-up sequence.

Popular programming on Saturday night included the first airings of the American soap opera Dynasty and a Disney Channel strand.

On 5 May 1981, the debate between Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and François Mitterrand for the second round of the presidential election, arbitrated by Jean Boissonnat and Michèle Cotta was broadcast simultaneously on TF1, Antenne 2 and FR3.

82-790 of 17 September 19824 the national color television company France Regions 3 which is now the High Authority for Audiovisual Communication, which draws up the specifications, monitors competition rules and appoints the channel's president.

To do this, FR3 ceases to be the operator of the 29 regional radio centers which are transferred to Radio-France and also loses its overseas audiovisual activities in FR3 DOM-TOM to the benefit of the new national program company RFO which had to be created for this purpose.

At the same time, FR3 was already closing down on Saturday afternoons to allow nine hours of airtime to the educational station La Sept, airing from 3 pm to midnight.

On FR3 itself, the network aired current affairs programming on Saturday mornings including Continentales and L'Eurojournal, both presented by Alex Taylor.

Under the direction of France Télévisions chairman Patrick de Carolis and director of channels Patrice Duhamel, October 2006 saw the introduction of a new daily cultural programme called Ce soir (ou jamais!)

The jingles and trailers divide the screen into three equal horizontal bands, the upper two of which display the natural landscapes of France.

The commercial jingles feature animals drawn in white pencil coming to life in natural landscapes with ambient music.

Each box contains a different video extract, which juxtaposed form a single image representing a person in an action of daily life.

[12][13] From 31 December 2012, to 13 January 2013, and from 29 June – 11 August 2013, France 3 broadcast jingles designed by the Demoiselles agency to mark its 40th anniversary.

France 3 is a general entertainment channel whose mission is to deliver domestic and regional programming, offering cultural and educational advantages.

France 3 was originally based at 13–15 rue Cognacq-Jay in Paris, which housed the television services of the former Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF).

A typical edition of Ici 12/13 consists of regional, national and international news headlines at 12:00 followed by an Outre-Mer bulletin from the studios of RFO Paris at 12:15.

On 5 January 2009, the programme began to incorporate a 5-minute regional news opt-out as part of a revamp of France 3's schedule to accommodate the end of prime-time advertising.

[16] One of France 3's most well-known programmes is Plus belle la vie, a recurring soap opera based in the fictional neighbourhood of Mistral, Marseille.

Until 1 April 2002, T O 3 [fr], one of the first children's programs produced entirely in computer-generated images, and the show presented by Theo and Luna, two virtual characters.

Between them, the stations provide 24 sub-regional services, whose broadcast areas approximately match the 22 former metropolitan régions of France (the exceptions being that Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Rhône-Alpes are sub-divided into two).

The channel reorganized on 1 January 2017, to adapt to the territorial reform: "We want to double the regional offer of France 3, by 2020", announced at the end of 2016 Yannick Letranchant, Deputy Director.

[citation needed] Exceptionally, from mid-March to mid-May 2020, all the regional journals were pooled into 11 specific entities to respond to the pooling of regions and reduction of staff in trays due to national confinement: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (Alpes, Auvergne, and Rhône-Alpes), Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (Bourgogne and Franche-Comté), Corsica, Grand-Est (Alsace, Champagne-Ardennes, and Lorraine), Hauts-de-France (Nord Pas-de-Calais and Picardie), Ile-de-France, Normandie (combining Caen and Rouen sector, two Normandy editions formerly Basse and Haute Normandy respectively), Nouvelle-Aquitaine (Aquitaine, Limousin, and Poitou-Charentes), Occitanie (Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées), Provence-Alpes Côte d'Azur (Provence-Alpes and Côte d'Azur), and a special entity that does not usually exist called Grand-Ouest (grouping only during periods of pooling the Bretagne editions, Centre-Val-de-Loire and Pays de la Loire).

In Belgium, local programming from France 3 Nord Pas-de-Calais Picardie has been known to receive twice the number of viewers than in its intended coverage area.

Within the main Ici 19/20 programming block and depending on where the viewer receives France 3 via terrestrial transmitters, local opt-out bulletins (some live, some pre-recorded) concentrating on specific communautés are aired.